How To Make Your Treadmill Sessions Less Boring When it comes to cardio – a type of physical exercise that increases your heart rate, thus making it healthier – there probably isn’t one that’s more efficient than running. Going for a jog each day will add years to your lifespan, burn fat deposits, tone your muscles, and increase your overall health. And the jog doesn’t have to happen outside – you can hop on a treadmill and work out just as efficiently.
There is, in turn, one major difference between running on a treadmill and doing the same outside: boredom. Without the changing landscape of the great outdoors, running gets boring pretty fast, and this hampers the efficiency of the exercise – and reduces your capacity to run. Workout boredom has been proven to reduce your stamina and the time you spend working out while keeping your mind distracted during a butt-busting workout session or a long run on the treadmill have been scientifically proven to increase their efficiency and push the point of exhaustion further away. So, without further ado, here are some tips on how to stay distracted on the treadmill for a better, more efficient workout session.
Use a smartphone
Smartphones can help detect depression and have many other beneficial health effects but this time, their use as an entertainment device is the one we need. Although they may not be built to accommodate one, most treadmills today do have space where you can place your phone so that the screen will always be in front of you – and this opens up a world of possibilities to chase boredom away. You can watch YouTube videos while you run, perhaps even catch up with your favorite series on streaming while you run – and you can also time your treadmill session to the episode, covering the warmup, the actual running, and the cooldown.
Play with the settings
One of the best things about treadmills is that you can play with your settings to make your session more diversified than simply running on a track in the park. You can combine various speeds and inclines to simulate slopes, you can program it for interval training, a highly efficient form of cardio consisting of short sessions of intensive workout with lower-intensity periods in between. Plus, you can set up a training routine that fits your needs like a glove.
Cover up the clock
All treadmills have a clock on their face showing how much time you have left of your session – and this will sometimes harm your workout efficiency. When all you do is look at the clock waiting for it to finally reach zero you’ll only make time feel slower, and this will almost invariably hamper your will to keep going. Instead of taking peeks at the clock, occupy your mind with something else – time will fly when you do so, and your session will end before you know it.
